In a statement that sounds all too familiar, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said: “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” Reminiscent of its current battle with Nokia, Apple will fight this one out concurrently in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

Comments

well, I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate for being "out of touch" or a "dumbass" for this comment, but I don't quite care.

I'm pretty much completely against software patents of almost any kind, so you can kinda guess how I feel about the UI patents...I just don't feel they should be acknowledged even if they were novel.

However, siding with current patent law for a bit:Doesn't nokia have LOADS of prior art on this stuff? They've been making phones for a long time, and they happen to do more research and concept tech than probably any other phone manufacturer out there.

Also, HTC isn't exactly new to the phone market either...I'm sure they have some similar designs documented at least.

I'm just confused how the US patent office can award so many patents that one would think would be instantly identafiable as not novel.

I am pretty worried about what this is going to mean for android and other cell phones out there. I HOPE this doesn't play out in apples favor...they are infants to the market after all, I doubt many of the patents could be valid patents if any.

WOW! You are so out of touch! What a dumbass! Can you feel all the hate I am radiating towards you? </sarcasm>

I'm sorry, I had you. You did say you were expecting it.

But no, seriously, I agree. It'll be interesting to see if Nokia or even Motorola step up. Like you said, Apple is still an infant in this market. HTC is like... a young adult. Nokia is like a middle-aged adult, and Motorola is the cranky old senior...

Now,what should we bet that no one reads the sarcasm tag, or that I was just joking...

I have a second gen iPod Nano as well as an iTouch. They were both gifts. I have owned other MP3 players and I must say I do prefer the iPod's hardware (although the Nano freezes at least once a month requiring a hard reboot). I pretty much never agree with Apple's policies though. I have not upgraded the OS on the iTouch because Apple requires me to pay for it. The upgrade does not add any functionality or fix anything that I use. I thought I would be fine not upgrading but now the Facebook app I use won't work unless I upgrade. Thanks Apple. I realize large companies will never please everybody but some of the things Apple does just reinforce my personal policy of not spending my hard earned money on their products.

First ever apple iphone was released in early 2007, but HTC's windows mobile phones with touch screen have been in the market since 2002/2004. May be HTC should have patented touch screen phone as a whole back then and apple would have been eating dust now.

Apple is indirectly saying it holds the patent for capacitive screen which allows you to make gestures and so many other things. Dumb move apple just like your products!

This will end badly. Apple made a mistake here, they are indirectly attacking Google, which will turn into Google vs Apple, and Google will inevitably win, or revoke ALL Apple ties with Google, and all apps for iPhones, splitting down the center "Google or Apple" unless they come to an agreement. I guess we should all start patenting stuff and then suing those who go and use the patents, it's the way I see Americans going about it. I don't understand why though. One of the ones that me and my friends have been joking about is the gestures to unlock a phone. I said "Why don't we patent the locked keypad/touchscreen status of the phone" because honestly, there isn't much option for a touch screen phone to unlock. A single button can be unlocked easily, but gestures or specific keystrokes, which the iPhone has, and apparently has patented, would be the only safe way. IMO Steve Jobs is in for a hell of a time, and I think it won'tend theway he expected.

Just wanted to send mad props to you for this comment as google was a major player in the patent offices decision to allow the consumer to hack the keys off apple products and allowing you to install any software you want on to it (that may not be the exact meaning of their decision). I don't know, apple does have there head up their ass but thinking they could put google in their place may have cost them more than they know.

No one's going to respect a company that tries to kidney punch every competing company with technicalities. This country is a giant sue-fest, where's the old-fashioned competition? Oops, I forgot you can practically patent out your competition. That's an idea, maybe Apple should patent the smartphone market itself and just gain sole control over it.

I would disagree with the assertion that Android mimics the iPhone OS. Most of these patents are highly technical and others don't seem to apply at all. You can't really patent a UI anyway, not that Android and iPhone look all that similar. Some of this stuff is unreasonably broad; i.e. moving icons around. Ludicrous that it was granted, and even more ludicrous that Apple sees fit to bully people with it.

I think i'm going to patent the on/off button, whether it's gui/software based or hardware based. Then sue the shiot out of apple for infringment....oh wait...i'm sure apple already has a patent for that too.

The patent office needs to stop granting patents for anything and everything. Especially for technology that hasn't even been developed. Just jotting down an idea with crayons on a napkin shouldn't constitute being granted a patent.

Good thing Ford didn't patient the assembly line, or "making vehicles in an efficient way", or alta vista 'searching the internet' etc... these companies patent such general things that even if you make your own it still falls under what they consider theirs. Multi-touch? Seriously? Go blow yourself Apple